The paper aims to present the first results of the research cluster “Reassessing the Legacy of Victorian Orientalists”, which is ongoing in the framework of the GRISSO project. It is devoted to the formative phase of the scientific study of the Ancient Near East in Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria, mainly focusing on the archaeologist and diplomat Austen Henry Layard (1817- 1894) and the clergyman and philologist Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933). The research, conducted by S. Ermidoro, S. Alaura and M. Bonechi, is based on entirely unpublished and, in some cases, hitherto unknown archival materials
